Russian soldiers walk behind a child near the school seized by heavily armed masked men

By Damir Ahmed, IOL Correspondent

MOSCOW, September 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Muslim leaders in Russia have sharply condemned holding hundreds of children hostage by an armed group in the north of the country.

A number of armed men and women, some strapped with explosives, broke into a school in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia on Wednesday, September 1, killing seven people, and herding pupils, parents and teachers into a gym.

The Russian Fatwa Council denounced the abduction, saying it is "a terrorist act that Islam totally refuses and forbids."

"The council condemns the act of taking hostages and the metro blast taken place Tuesday in northern Moscow," Ramil Bilayev, the council's spokesman told IslamOnline.net over phone.

He went on: "The council's chairman Ravil Gainutdin had described what happened as a terrorist act that Islam totally refuses and forbids and urged for a swift release of the hostages."

"Heinous Crime"

The religious council for North Caucasian Muslims said the hostage taking is "a heinous terrorist crime" that inflicted pain and suffering on families of the hostages.

The council described the kidnappers as "savages", as they had kidnapped "innocent children who have nothing to do with the practices of the incumbent officials".

Reports said the hostage takers want Russian troops to leave Chechnya and the release of Chechen fighters held in Ingushetia.

The World Organization for Islamic Call in Russia also added a voice of denunciation of the kidnappers.

"Taking children and women hostages would not be a solution to the problems, but rather will create bitterness, wrath and derision towards Islam and Muslims in Russia and everywhere," the organization said in a statement.

It called for an immediate unconditional swift release of all hostages.

The kidnappers released 26 of the hostages – mostly women and children – earlier in the day, with many more than 200 others still entrapped inside, after the appeal.

Russia has a Muslim population of 23 million, representing roughly 15 percent of its 145 million populations, according to a 2003 census.

"Criminals"

Also, the mufti of Chechnya joined the foray, saying: "The terrorist criminals who have seized the school and children have once again shown their savage face,"

"We, Muslim leaders of Chechnya, resolutely condemn the terrorist acts that have been committed," Akhmed-Haji Shamayev, the mufti of Chechnya, told the Interfax news agency.

Shamayev said the abductors are not Muslims as Islam calls for mercy and doing good for all peoples including those of other faiths.

"They are people without faith, they are no Muslims.

Islam is a great religion, which calls for doing good for people and for nations. Those who know a few things about Muslim religion will know that the words 'Islam' and 'terror' cannot be used together."

Shamayev offered help of the Chechen Muslims to secure the release of the school hostages.

"The Muslims of Chechnya are ready for any help that is needed for the release of the hostages in Beslan," the mufti said.

Still, it was not clear who the latest attackers of the school were.

Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov has denied that his forces are involved in the siege.

There are Chechens and Ingushis among the kidnappers. They speak good Russian," North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev told reporters said, without elaborating.

The hostage ordeal came one day after at least 10 people were killed and dozens injured, when officials said a female bomber blew herself up outside a busy Moscow subway station.

The explosion caused scenes of carnage outside the Rizhsky station in central Moscow, just a week after 90 people were killed in bomb attacks that brought down two passenger jets and that were blamed on Chechen fighters.